


Too Good at Goodbyes

by xAwkward_Ariesx



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dimension Travel, Dimension-Hopping Rose, F/M, Kid Fic, Rose and Metacrisis have kiddies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 06:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17198726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xAwkward_Ariesx/pseuds/xAwkward_Ariesx
Summary: Time passed and everyone's gone. There's no one left for Rose anymore. With that thought in mind she grabs the dimension cannon and runs back to her home universe. Maybe there she'll escape the torture being immortal brings...





	Too Good at Goodbyes

Sombre faced, Rose stands beside the latest grave. Her brother, Tony. He had been 87, his wife had died a month before. He had had the perfect human life. A wife, four children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and thanks to the Vitex fortune, he had lived a comfortable life with his family. But money couldn't buy immortality. No, but the time vortex could.

Rose swallowed past the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her as she stared at the other headstones that occupied the family plot. She knew her parents and husband were amongst them. Sighing, Rose stepped away from the crowd of mourners, making her way back home.

In the almost nine decades, that Rose had spent in the parallel universe she had stayed the same. Physically at least. She hadn't aged since she'd stared into the time vortex at 20. Though her mind had been warped by the horrors that the universe had thrown at her while dimension hopping and working for Torchwood. Both of which had been fruitless in the end. She had ran from the institute during her thirties when a rather unsavoury branch of the institute heard rumours of her immortality.

Pete had helped fabricate new documents for 'Miss Angela Jones' after Rose had died in a car crash. Though thanks to whatever had been altered by her exposure to the time vortex she had awoken several hours later. Thankfully after her death had been covered by authorities.

The same thing had happened multiple times after that. New identities were created every decade or two. The multitude of people she had been and lives she had lived blurred together. She had been Rose Tyler the defender of the Earth, Angela Jones a secretary at a fashion industry, she had been a teacher, a waitress, flight attendant, a journalist and more.

After Pete had become too ill, it had been Tony's job to create the official documents that allowed Rose to start a new life. But he was gone now too. Sure, the responsibility could go to his son Jason but what, was that just her existence now? Destined to forever rely on her family to help her run from the very organisation they worked for.

She didn't want to depend on anyone.

She had destroyed an army of daleks and their emperor with a wave of her hand. Yet she couldn't even seem to manage to live a normal human life. Not that she had wanted to from the moment she had stepped inside the Tardis. But he hadn't wanted her. He had handed her off to his human duplicate. Dooming her to sit at his bedside as every day stole just a little bit more of his mortality.

They were all gone now.

Rose had never truly met any of her nieces and nephews due to being on the run. Any friends and family she had were gone. All the people she had met in her years had mostly passed as well.

The world she stood in was no longer the one she had arrived in all the years ago with her Doctor and Mickey. Though he wasn't _her_  Doctor, was he? He hadn't been then and he wasn't now. _Her_ Doctor had been human and dead for decades.

These thought circulated through her mind as she got into her car, leaving the cemetery far behind her.

* * *

Rose slammed the door shut when she stepped into her apartment. Voices echoed from the living room, dropping her bag on the floor, she headed towards the voices and the people that accompanied them.

There three people lounged around the living room talking in loud, excitable tones as they discussed a subject that Rose couldn't immediately identify. One of the room's occupants spun around to face her - her brunette hair catching in the air as she did so - from her place on the sofa.

"Hey Mum."

"Hey sweetheart."

"It's time to leave, isn't it?" Another voice asked, this one belonging to the young male who sat perched upon the windowsill, hands folded in his lap.

"Yeah." She replied simply, leaving the room.

No words were uttered as the siblings stood up and headed to their rooms. Bags were packed quickly and methodically as only habit could teach them to.

Rose entered her own room, her bags having long since been packed. She glanced around the stark room before heading to the wardrobe. It was empty all aside from one thing. A large piece of equipment sat nestled at the bottom coated in a light sprinkling of dust.

She hauled the object out and placed it on the desk, leaving it vulnerable to her scrutiny. It was the only thing left from her time at Torchwood. The dimension cannon. Though now refined and compressed to make for easier travel and better mobility.

As far as Torchwood was aware the machine had been destroyed when a small fire broke out in the storage unit where the dimension cannon had - or thought to have - been stored. She and her husband had smuggled the device out of the institute when it had no longer held any interest or purpose to their operations. The two of them had worked on it, improving it. Though neither had thought it would be used again. Merely working on it as a project to keep themselves entertained.

Until they had notice Rose wasn't ageing. John had doubled his efforts to improve it then. Despite her protests. He hadn't wanted her to stay trapped in a universe she didn't belong to, resigned to watching her loved ones perish. She had relented then.

And now, staring at the machine, she was glad it had been finished. Not just for her sake but for their children's.

That had always been a surprise to Rose. She remembered arriving in Pete's World oblivious to her pregnancy. She remembered lying to the Doctor when she had stood on that godforsaken beach in order to prevent one of them the heartbreak. She remembered marrying John and falling pregnant with their second child and then their third. She remembered the moment they realised that their children were even less human than they had assumed. She remembered running with her children from the institute that had been home, leaving her husband behind in order to protect their children. She remembered the tears they had cried as they said goodbye to each other each and every time she ran. She remembered saying goodbye to him for the last time.

And even now she was still running. But this time, she was running home.

With that thought in mind she slung the ready packed rucksack onto her shoulder and hefted the device that would allow for dimensional travel. She exited the room without a second glance to see her children already stood there. Not a trace of anxiousness gracing their features as they waited patiently. It was routine by now. Someone would be arriving soon. They knew she couldn't resist at least saying goodbye. But they didn't know it wasn't just her brother she was saying goodbye to today.

Placing the machine on the coffee table she turned to her children, after activating it.

"Ready?" She asked, though she knew the answer.

She received three nods in answer. The Tyler-Smith family placed their hands over the now glowing machine.

"On three." Her youngest daughter shouted abruptly.

They took a synchronised deep breath as they prepared for their countdown.

"One." Cars could be heard surrounding the apartment complex.

"Two." Voices echoed from the lobby room below.

"Three." Footsteps clad in combat boots thundered up the stairs.

Four hands descended on the device, clutching the pulsing metal tightly.

The front door came crashing down as the family of four disappeared from the universe that had contained them for over eighty years.

* * *

A shock wave rippled through them as they slammed back into reality. They toppled to the ground taking staggering breaths, desperately trying to gather their wits as they clutched at the grass beneath them.

It took each of them varying lengths of time to accommodate to the new universe. It was hard to say who was most affected by the jump. The children had spent every day of their lives in the other universe. But Luna - the eldest of Rose's children - was more Timelord than the rest of them. She had the strongest connection to the Tardis, returning to the same universe was like a breath of fresh air. She was able to shake the effects of dimension travel quickly.

Rose definitely struggled for longer than her daughter. Despite the hundreds of jumps she had taken before it had never gotten easier. Being ripped away from the Tardis every time she was pulled back was like ripping open a wound wider and wider each time. Leaving an even bigger hole for the Tardis to patch up when she returned. But it had been decades, that wound had festered in her time away.

She had had minimal telepathic contact in those years. Her children had quickly grasped the basics with John's tutelage. And even that was nothing compared to the connection she shared with the Tardis. She was - or had _been_ \- human. She wasn't meant to sustain such a bond. And she felt it every time she came home. Felt the tearing and the burning as the Tardis tried to correct whatever wrongs the other universe had caused. And it drained her.

Rose turned to watch her children cautiously over her shoulder. Despite looking like adults, they were only teenagers in Timelord years and whatever the Tardis had done to her made them just that little bit more.

Luna seemed to be taking it in her stride. While Nox - her son - was stood hands braced on his thighs as he struggled to right his breathing. Sol - her youngest - was kneeling in the grass, dew clung to her beige jeans as she stared unseeingly at the horizon.

Rose gulped suddenly, in attempt to push past the pounding in her skull. After a few moments she picked herself up from where she had been crouched on all fours. She scooped up the bunch of wires and warped metal that was the dimension cannon and adjusted the weight of her bag.

Nox turned to her. They had gathered themselves only moments ago.

"Where to mum?"

"A hotel would be nice." Sol groaned clicking her neck.

"Didn't you roll out of bed at two in the afternoon?" Rose teased her daughter.

Sol shrugged in response.

Rose licked her lips as she surveyed her surroundings. She had no idea where they were and that prosed quite a big problem for their plans.

"Lets have a look around. Figure out where we are." She stated marching forward.

A short walk later and Luna was scooping up a discarded newspaper off of a lone park bench.

"Well that answers that question." She muttered before Sol snatched it from her.

"Seriously? Kent! How did we end up in Kent?" Sol shouted incredulously.

Rose peered over daughter's shoulder to see for herself. Sure enough they had found themselves in Kent. The date caught her eye and her eyes widened as the shock overwhelmed her.

_**'Sunday 27th June, 2010.'** _

Four years since she'd last been here. She stared at the town below as that fact settled in her mind. Four years seemed like forever, which was ridiculous considering how long she had lived but it was. It had been four years for Mickey. Four years for Jack. Four years for Sarah Jane. A blink of an eye for her. But for them. Four years was too long. And suddenly she missed them more than she cared to admit. She had missed so much of their lives already.

In that moment Rose felt every second of her existence, all 109 years of it. She was incredibly tired. She rubbed at her temple as her headache returned to remind her of the fact she hadn't slept in days. Sleep sounded like bliss right now. She couldn't think anymore about everything she had lost, she just needed to rest. Just for one night.

 "Lets try finding that hotel you mentioned, Sol. London can wait."

She ignored the significant looks they shared amongst themselves at her statement. Sol shrugged effectively ending the silent conversation.

"Sure, lets go."

This was the start of their new lives. But that could wait until a decent nights rest.


End file.
